In worksites, such as, quarries or other material collection sites, loading machines may be used to load material onto haul vehicles. Examples of loading machines may include but not be limited to wheel loaders, backhoe loaders, track-type loaders, and the like. Examples of haul vehicles may include dump-trucks, freight trains, and the like.
Typically, the loading machines are under control of the quarry since they are an integral part of the quarry operation. Haul vehicles typically are not owned by the quarries, but by individual customers. As such, quarry personnel need to interact with each haul vehicle operator to identify who the customer is and the type and amount of payload material desired by the customer. However, verbal interaction between quarry personnel and haul vehicle operators may be time consuming and inefficient.
Moreover, to determine if a haul vehicle has been loaded with the desired amount of payload material, the haul vehicle may be driven onto scales and weighed. Further loading or removal of the payload material and further weight assessment of the haul vehicle may be required to attain the correct amount of the desired payload material, thereby costing additional time and money. For billing purposes, it is also important to determine the actual amount and type of material loaded on each haul vehicle with the correct customer identification.
A workplace management system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2011/0309935 A1, entitled, “Workplace Management System.” The 2011/0309935 publication describes a system for tracking objects on a construction site, wherein a truck is provided with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and a loader is provided with a RFID reader. When the truck moves proximate the loader, the tag and reader communicate with each other and record whatever information is within the system.
While effective, improvements in monitoring of loading operations to improve the efficiencies and accuracy of same are desired.